Annual Report 1999 – 2000

Mindful of the inscription on the base of the Statue of Liberty, which reads in part, "I lift my lamp beside the golden door," we seek to open the door of opportunity ever wider by linking civil liberties to social justice. Whether it be challenging the state's failure to adequately warn mothers receiving welfare benefits about the new "family cap" rule, going to court to prevent police from harassing activists providing free food to the homeless in downtown Los Angeles, ensuring adequate access to public transportation for disabled riders or organizing to defeat the anti-youth Proposition 21, the ACLU-SC is everywhere fighting for the rights of the historically disenfranchised.

Each year our annual report provides an opportunity to highlight some of the work the ACLU-SC has been able to accomplish with your help. With over seventy-five cases on our legal docket, dose to two hundred civil rights and civil liberties bills before the legislature, and several public education campaigns underway at any given moment, there is no way to capture the full scope of our endeavor. The following pages focus on some major battles we mounted this year - battles over free speech, educational opportunity and police practices - snapshots, as it were, from the front lines.

Thank you for your commitment to the great promise that lies at the heart of our organization's mission and our nation's Constitution - liberty and justice for all. The tremendous challenge of fulfilling this promise cannot be fully realized without the courage and generosity of the ACLU's community of supporters.